to find out how Thomas Jones Phillips was regarded in his hometown Jack Whitehall and
Michael are visiting Newports John frost school named after their ancestors
neighbor they're meeting local historian Rianne Jones singing the school's choir
keep John Frost's legacy alive
so we saw referenced John Frost in a letter that my ancestor wrote and he's
got a school named after him so I'm guessing he wasn't just a tailor that's
right John Frost is a local hero he was a
leader of the Chartist movement John frost believed the great Reform Act did
not go far enough he and his fellow Chartists argued that
all working men should have the vote in 1839 the Chartists put their demands to
Parliament in the people's charter universal suffrage no property
qualification and your Parliament's equal representation and payment of
members and vote by ballot so all pretty reasonable things well these were all
very radical ideas at the time of the idea that we have know that voting is
some sort of inherent human right had to be very fiercely fought for and how does
my ancestor Thomas Jones Phillips fit into all of this well let me show you
this newspaper report from 1839 examination and committal of the
Chartists leaders for conspiracy and Sedition from the Tory times it being
intended that mr. Vincent who had been apprehended in London should undergo an
examination before the magistrates at Newport this day our reporter proceeded
there Henry Vincent another Chartist leader
was arrested in May 1839 for giving inflammatory speeches those in authority
like Thomas Jones Phillips feared that if they didn't crack down on this
working class movement it might develop into a full-blown revolution
on entering the town we found it in a state of complete riot the state of
alarm and the terrorism we were informed had existed ever since the news of
Vincent's apprehension in London a rumor having been circulated that the Colliers
would come down and rescue Vincent the mayor with the other magistrates and mr.
Thomas Jones Phillips Clarke to the justices in the most praiseworthy manner
adopted every precaution for the preservation of the peace so here is a
mention of our ancestor mr. Thomas James Phillips yeah as Clark to the
magistrates that was actually a really important role because it was his job to
give legal advice to the magistrates themselves and also keep a record of
everything that went on it does say in the most praiseworthy manner so they're
praising him for what he did yes the Tory times are praising him for shutting
down the practices of this great guy mr. Vincent
it was speaking about trying to spread democracy through our land I mean the
mention of of the Colliers in particular is really significant because the the
valley is the sort of industrial part of Wales is where child ISM is really
massive and where they draw a lot of their support from what's next I suppose
probably go and visit mine that our ancestors shot down possibly or maybe an
orphanage that he burnt to the ground I can't wait to find out more about Thomas
Jones Phillips I would suggest going up to the values because that will give you
an idea of how popular he was pretty much and how how deep the divisions were
this just gets better and better